New International Arbiter and More Norms

New International Arbiter and More Norms

After some very dedicated, hard work I am pleased to announce that LGM Toni Halliwell has been awarded the International Arbiter title by ICCF.

Toni will be presented with her medal and certificate at the ICCF Congress in Llandudno in August.

With the congress being held on British shores it is a great incentive for other players to work towards their norms and titles in order to be able to take up the offer from our Welsh
friends to attend the opening ceremony and the awards presentation.

Since the last message further norms have been achieved by ;

Praveen Rallabandi - Senior International Master norm

Rob Walk - Correspondence Chess Master norm

Phill Beckett - Correspondence Chess Expert norm

Dave Grobler - Correspondence Chess Expert norm

New Year, New Titles !

Wednesday, 10th January 2018
Andrew Dearnley

New Year, New Titles !

Happy New Year to all players and It's especially started well for three new ICCF CC Master title holders;

Steven Cade, David Evans and Jo Wharrier. Well played gentlemen!

Wales to host the 2018 ICCF Congress in Llandudno

Monday, 8th January 2018
Andrew Dearnley

Wales to host the 2018 ICCF Congress in Llandudno

Wales have succeeded in their bid to host the 2018 ICCF congress.
It will take place at the Imperial Hotel in Llandudno in August.
Please see the full announcement here;
https://www.iccf.com/message?message=1139

1st English Championship Update

Friday, 22nd December 2017
Ian Pheby

1st English Championship Update

The 1st English Championship Preliminary B has finished. Congratulations to Terence Donovan for winning this tournament with the excellent score of 9 out of 10. Terence will receive a prize of £15.00 and is entitled to enter a semi-final of the 2nd ECCC which will start in 2019.

Trevor S. Brotherton was second and also undefeated finishing on 8 out of 10, and Sean Clark finished third with 7.5 out of 10.

In the other sections:

Championship Final – John D. Rhodes and Alan J. C. Rawlings currently lead with 6.5 out of 12, with Stan J. Grayland third on 6.5 out of 13. 36 games remain in this closely fought tournament.

Semi-Final A – I. Wes Bell leads with 6 out of 9. Phillip W. Revell is second with 5.5 out of 9, and Kevin J. Thurlow is third with 5 out of 9. 14 games remain.

Semi-Final B – Brian Thompson leads with 7 out of 10. Keith Kitson is second with 5.5 out of 9, and Richard Williams is third with 5 out of 8. 12 games remain.

1st English Championship Preliminary A – Robert Marks leads with 8.5 out of 10. Richard I. Clark is second with 7.5 out of 9, and Gregory Hughes is third on 6.5 out of 7. 3 games remain.

1st English Championship Preliminary C – Congratulations to Allan Gardner for winning this tournament with the excellent score of 9 out of 10. Allan will receive a prize of £15.00 and is entitled to enter a semi-final of the 2nd ECCC which will start in 2019.

Phil J. Brooks was second and also undefeated finishing on 8.5 out of 10, and Arthur F. Reed finished third with 7.5 out of 10. 1 game remains.

Copa Perú IV honoring Alfredo Cillóniz

Wednesday, 20th December 2017
Andrew Dearnley

Copa Perú IV honoring Alfredo Cillóniz

The entry fee for the preliminary stage through EFCC, payable via EFCC's website is £7 or players can enter direct with the Peru Federation by following the instructions in the announcement. There is no ICCF direct entry for this tournament.

ICCF Titles and norms achieved

Friday, 15th December 2017
Andrew Dearnley

ICCF Titles and norms achieved

EFCC would like to congratulate both Les Ellis and Paul Batchelor on achieving recent norms to gain their ICCF CCE titles. Praveen Rallabandi has also secured his first IM norm in an ICCF Master norm section and now needs a win in his last game to gain an SIM norm. Well Played Praveen!

Malcolm Peltz Memorial concludes

Tuesday, 5th December 2017
Andrew Dearnley

Malcolm Peltz Memorial concludes

In a hard fought international tournament EFCC would like to announce the winner of the Malcolm Peltz Memorial is Slovenian player Jernej Pirš.
Well played to English players Stephen Hughes, who finished second on tie break from Neil Limbert in 3rd place. In what was an incredibly tight finish,
5 players tied on 7 points behind Jernej. It was especially pleasing to see 9 players make CCE and CCM norms from Malcolm's tournament and
the complete cross table is below;

JOHN TOOTHILL †

Sunday, 3rd December 2017
Neil Limbert

JOHN TOOTHILL †

Very sadly, we have to report the death of CC International Master John Toothill. Our condolences go to friends & family.

John’s name may not be familiar to younger players as you have to go back to the 1970’s / 80’s from his CC playing career. In 1972 / 3 he won a British Championship Reserves tournament followed by victory in a Candidates tournament the very next year so advancing to the Final. He came 6th in the Final 1974 / 5 & 2nd in 1975 / 6. But it is on the CC International scene that he is best known, as part of the Great Britain team that won the Gold Medal in the 9th CC Olympiad 1982-87; the first & only time that a British team has won this top CC team event. At the time, this was a fantastic achievement beating the all-conquering Soviet Union team into 3rd place (West Germany were 2nd). John was also a member of the Great Britain team in the 1st European Team Championship Final (1978-81), and a member of the winning England team in the 1st North Atlantic Team tournament (1981-4). He was awarded the CC International Master Title in 1981.

John was a strong OTB player playing for Windemere Chess club for over 40 years winning the County Championship on several occasions.

There are three excellent annotated games of John’s in Tim Harding’s superb book Correspondence Chess in Britain & Ireland 1924-1987 and he also featured in Grigory Sanakoev’s book World Champion at the 3rd Attempt.

RIP

Two new EFCC Memorial tournaments and two more ICCF titles

Saturday, 2nd December 2017 3pm
Andrew Dearnley

Two international memorial tournaments have been organised to remember GM Peter H. Clarke and SIM Ken Bowyer.

Here are the starting cross tables and it is hoped players will be able to earn titles they are seeking;

EFCC also congratulates Wes Bell on achieving his second norm for the ICCF CCM title and Richard Akrill for his second CCE norm to gain the ICCF CCE title.

David Weldon achieves ICCF International Master Title

Wednesday, 22nd November 2017 11am
Andrew Dearnley

Playing in ICCF Master Norm sections these days, in the face of such tough competition, all with like minded players competing for the 2 norms required for the title, must be one of the hardest ways to gain this title. Having to score 8 points from 12 games is no mean feat, so it's with great admiration and pleasure that EFCC announces that David Weldon has achieved the ICCF International Master title by doing this twice in the past 2 years. He won master norm section 132 with an impressive 8.5/12 and recently won master norm 150, scoring 8/12. See https://www.iccf.com/event?id=63845

BCCA Capablanca Team wins BCCTC!

Tuesday, 7th November 2017, 5pm
Neil Limbert

BCCA Capablanca Team wins BCCTC!

The 2016-17 British CC Team Championship has been won by a team from the BCCA – BCCA Capablanca. The result went down to the wire with the outcome depending on the very last game. As it was, BCCA Capablanca won with 11.5/16, Square Bashers were 2nd with 10.5 and the other BCCA team (BCCA Alekhine) were 3rd on 9.5. The winning team were John Brasier, Trevor Carr (Captain), Peter Catt, Les Ellis, Yosua Sitorus, Dennis Broadway, Ian Mason & Richard Tillett.

Announcement of New Tournament

To all English players age 60 or over: we wish to announce entries are now being taken for the 1st English Veterans CC Championship!

The English Federation of Correspondence Chess (EFCC) is pleased to announce that the first English Veterans Correspondence Chess Championship (EVCCC) will be held with a start date in March 2018. All English players aged 60 or over are invited to enter!

The full Rules, tournament structure, eligibility, prizes etc can be seen under "English Veterans CC Championship (EVCCC) on the EFCC website. Go to: http://www.efcchess.org.uk/bvccc.html

There shall be a Championship Final, Semi-Finals & preliminary sections with all standards of player catered for. The games will be played on the ICCF webserver & the tournament duration shall be approximately 21 months of playing time. The time limit shall be 40 days for each 10 moves.

The entry fee is £8.00. Entries may be made by PayPal through this website quoting “1st EVCCC”. Alternatively, entries may be sent to the Tournament Organiser, Ian M Pheby (address: Oaklea Cottage, Horsham Road, Capel, Dorking, Surrey RH5 5JH) with a cheque for £8.00 made payable to “EFCC”. The closing date for entries is 1st February 2018. Pairings will be issued as soon as possible after that date.

All veteran English chess players are heartily invited to enter this tournament, both for the enjoyment of the games and for friendly contact/communication.

Tournament Organiser: SIM Ian M Pheby, IA

ICCF Titles and Norms Continue to Flow

Thursday, 19th October 2017, 6pm
Andrew Dearnley

EFCC would like to congratulate the following players;

CCE Title :

David Cook
Praveen Rallabandi
Steven Cade

CCM norm :

David Evans

CCE norms :

Richard Akrill
Anthony A Roberts
Anthony Waller
Brian J Herriot

Edmund Soh achieves the International Master title

Thursday, 28th September 2017 6pm
Andrew Dearnley

A fabulous performance in his European Server Championship semi final section has earned Edmund Soh a second ICCF International Master norm to achieve a well deserved title. Edmund has won the section convincingly finishing above 5 International Masters and 2 Senior International Masters, with a score of +5. This includes 3 wins with the black pieces which is quite a feat in modern day server chess.

Edmund now qualifies for a European candidates section, which is one step away from the European individual server final. Here is one of the Edmund's wins with black, where a strong bishop pair and pawns dominate his French opponent's rook and knight.

This is a popular ICCF event and gives the chance to compete with opponents from all over the world in an open tournament. Please consider entering. There are no further fees payable should one qualify for the next stage and final thereafter.

4 More English Players Titles Awarded

EFCC would like to congratulate the following players on achieving norms for their ICCF titles;

Dawn Williamson - Lady Grandmaster

Brian Thompson - Correspondence Chess Master

Jo Wharrier - Correspondence Chess Expert

Ian Mason - Correspondence Chess Expert

England Win Match Against Indonesia

Saturday, 16th September 2017, 1pm
Neil Limbert

England recently completed a 12.5 – 9.5 win over Indonesia, with 100% performances from Praveen Rallabandi, Ben Wood, Keith Dudeney & Greg Hughes. England were one of the first Federations to play against the newly formed Indonesian CC Federation, and we are pleased to see that Indonesia has now been accepted as a member of ICCF.

International Secretary Andrew Dearnley is currently recruiting players for a match against Portugal, and we have other friendly matches in the pipeline. If you wish to be included in Andrew’s squad, please contact him.

EFCC Games Database

Guide to Correspondence Chess

This document, written by Neil Limbert, is an excellent introduction to correspondence chess for new players; download it from here.

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